Interspersed With Cluster Ethical Code Violation Trials, Kompolnas Urges Police To Complete Trial Of 3 Suspects Obstruction of Justice

JAKARTA - The National Police Commission (Kompolnas) expects the National Police to focus on completing the trial for serious ethical violations against the obstruction of justice suspect, which still leaves three suspected violators.

"It is better to focus on processing those suspected of committing serious ethical violations," said Commissioner of National Police Commissioner Poengky Indarti when confirmed, Wednesday, September 21.

In total there are seven suspects who hindered the disclosure of the murder case of Nofriansyah Yosua Hutabarat or Brigadier J, namely Inspector General Ferdy Sambo, Brigadier General Hendra Kurniawan, Kombes Agus Nur Patria, AKBP Arif Rahman Arifin, Commissioner Chuck Putrato, Commissioner Baiquni Wibowo and AKP Irfan Widyanto.

Of these seven suspects, four of them Ferdy Sambo, Chuck Putraton, Baiquni Wibowo and Agus Nur Patria, have undergone an ethics trial and were sentenced to dishonorable dismissal.

The ethics trial for the obstruction of justice suspects left three people, namely Hendra Kurniawan, Arif Rahman Arifin and Irfan Widyanto. However, the trial against the three has not been carried out, but is interspersed with trials for moderate to mild cluster code violators.

A total of 35 people who are strongly suspected of violating ethics due to unprofessional handling of the location of Brigadier J's murder at the Duren Tiga TKP, Jakarta, as many as 13 people have undergone an ethics trial including four suspects of obstruction of justice, 12 of whom have the results of the ethics trial decided.

The Police in conveying information on the schedule for the ethics trial of the alleged violators were not followed up, or informed after the afternoon was held.

The National Police Public Relations Division argued that it had not received information from the Professional Accountability Bureau (Wabprof), which is responsible for conducting the ethics trial. On Monday 19 September, the ethics trial against Brigadier Sigid Mukti Hanggono was only delivered to the public through the media on Tuesday 20 September.

Poengky hopes that there will be a trial schedule that explains the names of the alleged violators and the time of the trial so that the public, including the media, can find out.

"It is hoped that the trial will focus more on serious violations first. It would be better if the trial was declared open to the public as a form of transparency and accountability,” said Poengky.

Based on Antara's report, the Head of the Public Information Section (Kabagpenum) of the Public Relations Division of the National Police, Kombes Pol. Nurul Azizah was confirmed regarding the non-announcing of the ethics trial schedule, and the postponement of the announcement of the results of the ethics trial the next day.

Nurul reasoned that the PR Division was busy with its duties so that the information was not conveyed in an “up to date” manner, in addition, because it had not received information from the Wabprof Bureau regarding the agenda for the ethics session.

"As for the (trial schedule) every day, we really don't know (the information) if it isn't before the trial, because the source is not from us (Humas) from the Wabprof, right," said Nurul.

Police observer from the Institute for Security and Strategic Studies (ISESS) Bambang Rukminto criticized the postponement of the ethics trial against the obstruction of justice suspect which gave the impression that the Police were stalling for time.

He also considered that the move played a role in the increasing public trust in the National Police after the determination of five suspects in the murder of Brigadier J.

"Now is not the time to play back and forth strategies to wait for public pressure to weaken, and forget about the completion of this case," said Bambang, Monday, September 19.

In response to this, the Head of the National Police Public Relations Division, Inspector General Pol. Dedi Prasetyo emphasized that the National Police did not buy time in completing the ethics trial of dozens of police officers involved in handling the scene of the murder of Brigadier J in Duren Tiga.

"There is no procrastination," said Dedi at the National Police Headquarters, Jakarta, Monday, September 19.

According to the two-star general, there is a mechanism in the conduct of an ethics trial against 35 Polri personnel who are strongly suspected of violating unprofessional ethics in handling the Duren Tiga crime scene.

"Everything needs stages, everything needs a process, of course when there are results, they will be conveyed to the media," said Dedi.